Swinging Fore a Good Paws Cause

Mondays get a bad rep. Mondays are awesome when you're not working and you're swinging FORE a good PAWS instead!

Today was the inaugural fundraising golf scramble event for the Wood County K-9 Fund. It was cleverly called Swing 'Fore' Paws.

And we were swinging for guys like Ace here and other fur buddies in the department. I knew a few of the organizers and they've been working on this for about a year and frankly, it showed. We could tell by all the sponsors and volunteers and crazy amount of raffles and other prizes that they put a lot of hard work into this.

And one pretty big sponsor as well.

My foursome today was Sue, Pam and Jackie – who I golf with on Mondays when I sub for the ladies league at the Ridges. So last Monday we had a scramble. Then I had scrambles Wednesday and Saturday with league in between. Yup. Fifth time swinging in the past 8 days. 

And shooting.

Oh yes. On one of the holes we could shoot our drive out of a cannon-type gun. Let me tell you, that's the way to get decent yardage! Can't say I've ever done that before but I definitely would do it again!

And the weather was super gorgeous, too. Just a really fun day off, that's for sure.

I didn't stick around long enough to see if I won any raffles since I had book club at 5:30. (Priorities!) Pretty sure I didn't win anything. Also pretty sure I've never shelled out more 20-dollar bills in a week's time than this one with all these scrambles and raffles and stuff. Good causes, but dang. I need to spread them out more.

On the plus side, I bet I'm gonna sleep good tonight! 

Probably dream about big slobbery sweeties! 

A Break in the Clouds

This entire pandemic has had another cloud hanging over it that appeared on May 25, 2020, when George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in Minneapolis while being arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. 

During the arrest, bystanders video recorded Derek Chauvin, a white police officer with the Minneapolis P.D., kneeling on Floyd's neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds after Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down.

Today, after a trial of several weeks and jury deliberation of 10+ hours, Chauvin was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. 

Like much of the nation – certainly all of Minnesota – I tuned into the reading of the verdict at 4 p.m. I was nervous. Could we count on the "system "to do the right thing? To service justice? I remember the Rodney King verdict well since I was just starting my newspaper career when that news broke. Police officers in L.A. beating up King mercilessly for 15 minutes – all caught on videotape as well, but the officers were later acquitted.

So today, I was hoping for a better ending. When I heard the first "guilty," I had a lump in my throat. By the third, tears in my eyes.

Tears of relief really. And sadness, too, that this is such a teeny tiny break in the clouds that hang over those who suffer this injustice and disrespect every day. There's such a long road to reach fairness and equity or even basic human respect. 

How embarrassing. How disgusting. How unjust.

I don't know about you, but I prefer sunny skies to tiny breaks in the clouds. It takes kindness first. It's such a little thing, yet so big all at once. Can we learn from this and do our best to be good humans? We can't be perfect, but opening our minds and hearts is a great start to being pretty good.

God, help us.

Clean Underwear and So On

If you're of a certain age, your mother undoubtedly drilled it in your head to "Wear clean underwear in case you get into an accident!"

When I was very young I wondered how clean underwear could save my life in a head-on collision. Later, I realized it was more a warning not to embarrass myself or tarnish the family name with tarnished undergarments. Heaven forbid they have a hole in them either!

I guess my generation of parenting just said "Wear clean underwear" and left it at that. But maybe I've been a little low on the old-school advice. Today, when Mr. Newly Independent came home for a dental appointment, we suggested he brush his teeth before going. 

"That's like washing your windshield before getting a car wash," he said. Oh, so he's a logical and sarcastic reflection of his parents. Who knew?

Not to be dismissed, I held up my hands and said, "Even I'm wearing fancy nails to go get fingerprinted." Nobody appreciated my fancy nails. But I felt better about myself.

And yes, I got fingerprinted. And yes, it was voluntary. And no, it must not be in the sheriff's deputy's nature to say "nice nails." Though I was all prepared to tell him – or anyone who noticed – that they're my "jail nails." Humor opportunities are lost sometimes in certain environments. I guess in a jail, that's about right.

So I'm not in trouble. Just had to get fingerprinted as part of a background check for some volunteer work with children. Very much appreciate organizations who do that! Since the city PD isn't doing fingerprinting for that – thanks COVID – they recommended someplace in Marshfield or Wausau. Didn't feel like driving so figured I should check with the sheriff's department since we are the county seat. Thankfully, I could get it done for a small fee.

Of course, the magic ink pad they normally use wasn't working so they had to use a real ink pad – heck I could have done it at home then using my stamping supplies. Well the real ink doesn't come off easy so I had black fingertips for a few hours.

But dang, those nails looked good. 

And Mom, I had clean underwear on, just in case.

Herding Cats

My mind was going in so many directions this week, it felt like I was herding cats. It took until Friday, but I finally got one corralled in a box! That about sums it up.

Actually, Sylvester climbed on my desk and hopped to another shelf to put herself in the box. I think she felt sorry for me and wanted one part of the week to go smoothly. She didn't realize that when a person has a stressful week, come Friday, all they can do is giggle through it and launch into the weekend.

Other than the over-tired giggles I get, I did have a few amusing moments today...

I managed to escape my desk and take a walk break in the midafternoon sunshine and somewhat mild temps. Since my regular walk buddies were off, I went by myself. I heard some sirens when I started out and again about halfway through. It's not unusual since there are a handful of medical facilities nearby.

I did my route and was just turning into the entrance at work when the sirens were suddenly loud and a voice over a loudspeaker squawked, "Get your hands up where I can see them!" Talk about a freak-out moment. I was turning around and saying, "What the..." and there was no one there. Thank goodness or I may have been shot for disobeying!

Here the technical college – which has a police program – was doing a training exercise. Just on the other side of the trees. So yeah, they were very close and yeah, it sounded like they were talking to me. And yeah, my heart was still racing an hour later.

Good grief. MSTC is only a block from work but I never hear their training drills. Naturally, AFTER my near brush with the law, I heard them repeatedly run the sirens and shout demands through the megaphone. Silly me. Why would they come for me anyway? Unless, of course they were the men in white coats. That would be logical.

I suppose for them, gathering up stressed out loonies off the ledge is sort of like herding cats. Trust me. Just like Sylvester, I might just volunteer to go.

Thankfully, I had an alternative. Friends.

We had a great evening with our old Assumption gang, catching up on how our freshman in college are doing and sharing photos from our various spring break trips and more. That's good therapy right there.

Need to fill that prescription more often.